You have too much spare time.
Pretty much!
Let me tell you how my sister in law got on disability. She got hooked on drugs and ran off on her family. Well, she gets somewhat cleaned up and starts living in government housing and seeing a psychologist. All of which you and I get to pay for. When she filed for disability and was turned down her psychologist sent her to a lawyer buddy who knew how to work the system. Presto! She is now clinically depressed and disabled. Her depression is just anger without enthusiasm. She should be mad because of all her stupid decisions and make ammends for them but it is easier to wallow in self pity than do the right thing. I think both her psycholist and lawyer should be in jail. How many thousands upon thousands more are there just like her?
Again, I haven’t said your story isn’t true. I think just about everyone has bums in their families somewhere. I wish it wasn’t true but it is.
Also, it's not the government’s job to determine who gets my charity. However, through soft theft (taxes) that is exactly what the government has done. My family has to do with less of my hard earned money so someone else can continue to make poor decisions.
I wasn’t addressing you on this Bill somebody else had posted about this I am fairly sure. However, since you want to address it that is fine. First, who is the government? The state or the federal government. Welfare for the most part is state government not federal government. If you don’t like how much your state pays into welfare Bill move to another state. The federal government only has four roles when it comes to welfare. One it gives states many financial incentives to run the program. It decides what the level of payment should be and what services should be provided. It plays a key role in deciding what problems should be tackled or who gets the money. Finally, they directly run some of the programs (not the welfare part) usually Medicare and Social Security. State provides quite a bit of the funding for welfare not the federal government. You must remember that General Assistance depends almost entirely on state and local governments and the federal government is usually not involved. Every states welfare program differs. Who do you suggest gets to decide how to spend your tax money? You? That might work in some cases but their are some people you would not want spending even their own money.
There was a time when people were ashamed to have the government help them. If they did get something from the government they got off of it as quickly as possible. Not anymore. Now they sell their pride, dignity, and freedom for chump change.
Yes, before the great depression that might have been true. Yet I was raised by a woman who lived through that time. She didn’t like the way things were either or even the way welfare had become institutionalized but she also said that to go backwards to a time before the government interfered would not help anybody. I don’t know about selling of pride, dignity, and freedom. The truth is like you Bill I know people on welfare but my experience has been different. Most that go on welfare do it because they have no choice, no job, and no home. They don’t do it because they want to stay there for the rest of their lives.
That said there are quite a few welfare bums who would just rather stay on welfare and do nothing. I’m not denying that at all, Bill. Honestly, I probably like them less than you. In a generation we have watched most of them go from being bums who wouldn’t lift a shovel to help you to straight out drug dealers who have tried to harm the very people helping them. I don’t think they should be on welfare.
I'm done in this thread because neither you or I is going to convince the other to see our point of view.
I didn’t know that is what we were trying to do Bill, but alright, if you are done then you are done. I thought we were having a conversation on this one and not arguing. No problem!